Much Ado About Nobody
by Alphabet Pie
Summary: Based very loosely on Shakespeare's play, Mush Ado About Nothing. Vexen and Marluxia hit the slopes and are tricked into falling in love with each other. Complete. Old. 411, XigDem
1. Extreme Measures

Xigbar looked up from the book he was reading to glance at the other readers in the castle's enormous library. Xaldin seemed immersed in his novel but Demyx didn't seem to be concentrating particularly.

"You know," Xigbar began, pointing to his book, "This is a really good book,"

"What's it about?" Demyx asked, apparently eager for a distraction. The intended response.

"Well, the main characters hate each other but the others think they'd be perfect together so they hatch a plan to get them together,"

"Much Ado About Nothing, is that?" Xaldin asked, looking up from his book to join in with the conversation. Xigbar nodded.

"Well, a book adaptation,"

The Freeshooter continued reading for a few moments. "Dude, Beatrice and Benedick are a lot like a certain couple we know,"

Demyx thought for a few moments.

"Axel and Roxas?" He asked, obviously not knowing the story particularly well. Xigbar shook his head. Demyx pouted and returned to thought.

"Whilst I'd hardly call them a couple, Marluxia and Vexen," Xaldin helpfully supplied.

"Bingo,"

"What? And we're the ones who're going to get them together? That's impossible!"

"No, it'll be dead easy. Have you ever really talked to either of them, Demyx? They'll always find a way to complain about each other. It means they're already secretly in love,"

"And you're saying this because a book written by some crazy Elizabethan guy says so?"

"Duh," Xigbar cracked an evil grin, setting the book aside. "And do I have the perfect plan for these two,"

"That's it! I never want to see you and your stupid flowers again!" Vexen yelled at the pink haired man in front of him and stormed off into a corridor of darkness in the opposite direction. Marluxia, presumably the offender, sighed and prepared to portal away.

And was hit by a miniature tidal wave coming from IX behind him, drenching the flower elemental.

"Fifty munny says you can't get him to come,"

Vexen sighed at his two-rank superior. Xigbar had recently convinced Xemnas to give them four days' leave, which they were going to spend in the Land of the Dragons. The Freeshooter wanted Marluxia to join him, Demyx, Vexen and Xaldin. Vexen, quite understandably, didn't. Now Xigbar was waging money that Vexen couldn't convince XI to come.

"Fifty isn't worth having to spend four days with that bastard,"

"He's coming anyway, it's just whether you're gonna lose fifty munny or not, dude,"

"You're a bastard too," Vexen grumbled, before portaling off to Marluxia's quarters.

Xigbar smirked, walking over to the intercom monitors; he motioned for Xaldin to follow.

"Let's see how he handles this,"

"Vexen's right, you know." Xaldin commented, seating himself in front of the monitor nonetheless. "You realise that Marluxia's still getting changed from being drenched by Demyx?"

Xigbar just grinned wider.

"Marluxia?"

Vexen stepped uncertainly into the Graceful Assassin's lounge. The nobody had been in the Organisation for almost two years, yet it still scared him just how pink the man managed to be. There was a muffled thump from the adjacent room and Marluxia hurried out, closing the door behind him before turning around to face Vexen, who had just gone bright red. Xaldin was, of course, completely right. Marluxia now stood in front of Vexen with nothing but his black boxers on, pink hair still dripping from Demyx's attack.

"Uh..." the flowery man began to turn pink as well. "One moment," He dashed back inside his room, returning a few moments later in a fluffy purple dressing-gown. Decently covered, he motioned for Vexen to sit down on the couch and asked him the reason of his visit.

"Demyx, Xaldin, Xigbar and I are going to the Land of Dragons for four days. I was wondering if you might want to come," Vexen explained, careful not to mention the bet. Knowing Marluxia, the man would refuse to come just to make the academic lose fifty munny.

"The reason for the trip?"

"Uh... to relax, just get away from it all for a few days?" Vexen wasn't quite sure why Marluxia had asked.

"It's the middle of winter there right now," Marluxia prompted. "Now I know you just love freezing people's butts off, but wouldn't the others choose somewhere... warmer?"

"I'd like to see you skiing without snow," Vexen drawled.

"Oh, a skiing trip. No thanks, I'll pass." Marluxia stood up and began tending to a few of the numerous plants that seemed to have escaped from his gardens.

"Why? I thought you'd jump at the chance to get out of this stuffy castle," Vexen pressed, following XI as he wandered through the door to his gardens.

"You seem awfully determined to make me come, Vexen." Marluxia observed.

"You seem awfully determined not to come,"

There was an awkward silence as Marluxia continued to potter about, apparently unconcerned that he was still only wearing boxers and a dressing gown.

"I bet it's because you don't want to get your butt kicked out on the slopes," Vexen suddenly commented, folding his arms with a contented smirk. Marluxia did a double take.

"By you?" He exclaimed, trying to imagine the scientist even being able to stand up with skis.

"Oh come on, Marluxia," Vexen said, as if he were talking to someone with a similar intellect to that of a five-year-old. "Think about it. My element is ice, remember?"

Marluxia felt his cheeks heat up in a mixture of embarrassment and fury, despite it not being physically possible.

"I bet I could still beat you," He muttered, glaring at his flowers because it was easier than glaring at Vexen. The taller man laughed.

"A challenge? You'd better come, then."

He portaled away, leaving Marluxia alone with his plants and the impending doom of attempting to beat the scientist at his own element.

"You are a complete and utter bastard," Vexen immediately began to complain as soon as he was back in Xigbar's company. "You knew he was getting changed!"

Xigbar tried to feign a look of innocence. "What are you talking about?" Vexen shook his head, disgusted. "Anyway, you got him to come?"

The scientist's expression turned to one of smugness. "Oh, he'll be coming alright." Xaldin looked slightly worried.

"Meaning...?"

"I got him to challenge me at skiing, there's no way he'll back down," Vexen said. "That'll be interesting." Most of the neophytes didn't realise, but in the Organisation Vexen was the unchallenged champion of the slopes, particularly with the more extreme sports like snowboarding.

"Yeah, I don't think flower boy's ever been skiing before," Xigbar mused, and Vexen laughed out loud.

---

AN:

_This is a really old fic too, written in May 2008. Not much else to say. Can also be found, in its entirety, on DeviantArt._


	2. Stuck Together

The hut they were staying at was large, cosy and inconspicuous. It had actually been built into the mountain by some random person, but Xigbar had taken it over a while back with the aid of Lexaeus and now it was used by Organisation XIII as a holiday home every now and again. There were four bedrooms, each with three single beds so there was room for everybody to sleep there if Roxas slept in the cot. However nowadays it was rare that the whole Organisation went on holiday together at all.

"Someone's going to have to share a room," Xigbar mused pointedly. "I vote Vexen and Marluxia,"

They both rightfully exploded.

"No way in hell! He'll probably molest me or something in the night!" Marluxia yelled before he could stop himself. Vexen's response was equally indignant.

"Why can't you and Demyx share or something?" Marluxia asked, carefully ignoring Vexen's screeches that he would never molest anyone, let alone him.

"Nah, Xigbar snores," Demyx replied playfully. "He'll be in a room on his own."

"Xaldin?" Vexen pleaded. The tall nobody shook his head. "I'd rather be on my own,"

There was a pause as Marluxia and Vexen looked at each other with complete and unadulterated disgust.

"That's it. I'm sleeping outside," Vexen proclaimed, marching purposefully towards the front door. Well, attempting to, but Xigbar hastily stopped him. "Come on, it's not as if you have to share a bed," He exclaimed, making Vexen look as if he was about to throw up at the very thought.

"Can't Marluxia go with Demyx?"

"No. Now get unpacking."

Surprisingly, Vexen left for the bedroom without another word, followed by Marluxia who gave Xigbar a death glare as he turned round the corner.

The two nobodies carefully unpacked their luggage in silence, purposefully ignoring each other. Vexen, with the least to unpack, finished first and made a quick exit, leaving Marluxia alone.

It was too late to go out on the slopes so the group stayed indoors (although Vexen did go outside for a while). The group ate pizza in front of the TV, mostly arguing about what film they wanted to watch until finally deciding on Advent Children for no good reason. Once the film had finished they talked. For the most part Xigbar, Demyx and Xaldin tried to keep the mood high but Vexen and Marluxia made no attempt to enjoy themselves.

"Come on, Vexen," Xigbar finally began, exasperated. "Cheer up,"

"I'll cheer up when he crawls into a ditch and dies," Vexen growled into his coffee, not even bothering to call Marluxia by his name since they all knew just who he was referring too. Xigbar sighed and signalled discreetly to Xaldin.

"Damnit, you two!" The lancer yelled right on cue. "We're actually trying make an effort to have fun here! Break like this doesn't exactly come every day, you know! Get your heads out of your damn asses and co-operate! You're making this bloody hard for all of us!"

Vexen glared at his superiors.

"I didn't even want to come anyway," He muttered. "I'm going to bed," With that, he stood up and stalked off to his room. The silence continued in the lounge for a few moments before the atmosphere suddenly lightened considerably.

"He's such an idiot!" Marluxia sighed about halfway through the conversation. Xigbar cast a knowing glance at Xaldin and Demyx. _They always find a way to complain about each other_.

"You were being pretty moody yourself," Demyx aptly pointed out. Marluxia hushed a little and turned away.

"Ever been snowboarding before?" Xigbar asked the pink-haired man in an attempt to change the subject. Marluxia looked up from the interesting spot on the floor he'd been staring at and shook his head, hair swinging.

"You'll really enjoy it, it's great fun," Demyx continued. "Especially with Vexen,"

"I wouldn't enjoy anything with that man involved," Marluxia growled.

"You haven't been snowboarding with Vexen." Xaldin observed. "I'm serious," He added when he saw Marluxia's look of disbelief. "You'd never think it from the way he acts normally, but out on the slopes he's like a completely different person."

"You might even find you like him," Demyx laughed, but stopped as Marluxia gave him a 'Like that's ever going to happen,' glare. The conversation moved on, until Marluxia grudgingly retired to bed.

Vexen was brooding in a comfy arm chair in the corner of the room, examining a book with false intrest. He refused even to acknowledge Marluxia as he came into the room.

"What's up?" The assassin asked out of mere courtesy. Vexen glared. "Aside from me, everything about me, being stuck in a room with me, having to talk to me at all and the fact that I exist?"

There was a long, awkward pause as Vexen considered with a look of distain etched onto his face.

"Well?"

"Xigbar doesn't snore,"

There was another pause as Marluxia rolled back his memory tapes to see what kind of significance the sentence held. "Why do you think Demyx would lie like that?" Vexen asked. The question was sincere; even the scientist couldn't work out why. "He would never want to not sleep with Xigbar, you know what those two are like. So he must have had some other reason to do it,"

"Maybe he wanted to torture us," Marluxia mumbled dejectedly. Vexen nodded morosely, for once agreeing with the flower-elementals strange delusions of grandeur.

"So... phase 2?" Demyx began as soon as Marluxia was safely out of earshot. Xigbar pulled out his trusty book.

"In here, they trick Beatrice and Benedick by making them overhear them talking about how the other supposedly loves them," Xigbar explained - badly. "Although our pair are so sceptical they'll probably think we're up to something,"

"Right. So we'll need another plan." Xaldin concluded. They all fell into deep thought, Xigbar flicking through his book for ideas - because obviously this Shakespeare dude knew what he was talking about; Xaldin thoughtfully examining ideas in his mind with a very Zexion-esque pose, and Demyx pouting most adorably as he pondered.

"Damn. This is harder than I thought," Demyx finally admitted.

"What if we left a rose by Vexen's bedside one morning, and something very Vexen by Marluxia's bed at the same time? It could just end in a bitch fight but it's worth a try, if we moved them to different rooms," Xaldin offered, always one for good spontaneous ideas.

"How about a test tube?" Demyx replied.

"The most boring and unromantic gift you could ever hope to give someone," Xigbar said. "Sounds about right."

Demyx grinned, having finally made a valid contribution to the conversation.

"We'll need to get them in different rooms though or they'll get suspicious. Tomorrow we'll swap them over and the day after the plan goes into action, then." Xaldin concluded.

"Cool," Demyx burbled.

"Keep dropping little hints, though. Like you've accidentally let slip some big secret," Xigbar said, getting up to go to bed. Demyx followed.

"You coming?" He asked Xaldin, who shook his head.

"Just to the end of the chapter," The lancer motioned to the thick book he'd been reading.


	3. The Slopes

The morning dawned bright and early, the sun dancing and glistening on pure, virgin snow. The sky was a perfect blue, cloudless and complete.

With the annoying realisation that he'd forgotten to draw the curtains, Vexen groaned and turned over to bury his head in the pillow. Marluxia, over the other side of the room, was sleeping like a pig, barely covered by the duvet and not even having the decency to wear a proper pair of pyjamas, donning instead just a pair of boxers. Vexen attempted to erase the vision from his mind, and found, to his frustration, he couldn't.

Well, the weather was perfect, and the day promised to be a vast improvement on yesterday.

Vexen dragged himself out of the bed, grimacing as his knees creaked. He considered pulling on his dressing gown, but decided against it. It wasn't like he could get cold, anyway.

Outside, surrounded by his element, he finally felt himself relax. He breathed in the crisp, cool air, gazed out on the vast landscape covered with white, let the wind gently tousle his hair.

A small, rare smile found its was to his lips. Yes, today promised to be very good indeed.

He walked a little way out onto the slope, feeling the satisfying crunch of snow compacting underneath his bare feet, the tingle of cold which was somehow so warm... He found himself reminded of a time when he'd only been small, a time before he was called Vexen, the first time there'd been really deep snow.

The memories of emotions, so near yet so far, almost forgotten yet so clear where his heart once was, hurt. He kneeled down in the snow, focusing on the present, pushing the thoughts from his mind.

A few minutes of rare peace went by, silent. Vexen became dimly aware of another presence a few metres behind him. A presence he really did not want.

He stood, facing away into the breeze.

"What do you want, Marluxia?"

The assassin did not reply for a while, merely approaching slowly.

"If you have nothing to say, go inside. It's warmer-" Vexen turned sharply to face Marluxia and stopped.

The man looked a little surprised, as if he wasn't expecting Vexen to turn. His lips were slightly parted, rosy hair tousled by the wind.

But that wasn't why Vexen had stopped.

The breeze picked up a little without either of them knowing, pulling apart the hastily-tied knot on Marluxia's dressing down, revealing a bare chest and the boxers he'd been sleeping in. He noticed, seemingly for the first time, and quickly pulled it back into place, this time with a more secure knot. Was there a slight pink tint on his cheeks? Vexen quickly dismissed the question. It wasn't even possible.

"Did you see the look on Vexen's face?" Demyx giggled, bouncing slightly on the sofa. "That was perfect, Xaldin,"

The wind-wielder grinned smugly.

"I must admit your timing was pretty awesome," Xigbar admitted. "Hanging around with Luxord a lot, I see," He grinned at his own joke, and even Xaldin laughed.

"Did you get a reply from Lexaeus of Zexion yet?" Xaldin asked.

"Yes, they're not so sure about the plan, but they'll go along with it for now,"

"Vexen and Marlu are coming," Demyx informed the others.

And so they did.

Marluxia pulled off his sodden boots at the door, grumbling that he hadn't had time to put any socks on.

"You didn't need to come outside, you know,"

"Wanted to get some fresh air," Marluxia mumbled vaguely. "See the slopes,"

"Why the rush then?"

Vexen stood on the step just inside the doorway, looking down his nose at Marluxia struggling with his shoes. The other sensibly remained silent.

They were greeted by the trio in the kitchen and began breakfast. Xaldin announced that he and Demyx would now share a room so Marluxia and Vexen wouldn't have to. One looked pleased with the new arrangements; the other was downright thankful. The rest of the meal passed peaceably.

Everyone save Vexen was outside, shivering with cold, wrapped up in thick layers like parcel. They all wore their own clothes because it was far too cold to wear their usual uniform, turning them into blobs of iridescent colour littering the pure white mountains.

"Where is he? We can't start without him," Xigbar moaned after 10 minutes of waiting. "He has the boards," He explained for Marluxia, seeing his confused expression.

"Here he comes," Demyx pointed to an approaching figure carrying four snowboards. Vexen advanced at a slow jog, quickly catching up with the others and handing them each a snowboard, leaving his hands empty.

Marluxia eyed his board with distrust.

"What took you so long?" Xigbar asked, setting off again to the top of a slope. The others followed.

"I could only find three boards, and much as I would enjoy seeing Marluxia struggle without one, I don't want to have to run all the way back to get another,"

The Freeshooter nodded, his question answered. He took the lead, Xaldin and Demyx close behind. Vexen walked on his own a few metres after, with Marluxia bringing up the rear.

"Don't you have a board?" He finally asked Vexen as they neared their destination. The old man looked back as if he'd asked a stupid question. "Uh... you use your shield?"

Vexen stared in disbelief.

"As useful as it is for disposing of idiots, it wasn't designed to be used for snowboarding. That's like you weeding your garden with your scythe,"

He chuckled slightly at the thought.

"Well what do you use then?"

Vexen gave an enigmatic smile over his shoulder, framed by the snow and illuminated by the sun, hair blowing in the breeze. Marluxia felt his face heat up for absolutely no logical reason whatsoever and looked away, trying to get the picture out of his head.

Vexen, he decided, should not, under any circumstances, be able to do that. Ever.

"Ah. We're here,"

Marluxia turned back and saw over the top of the ridge they now stood on. Below the mountain just dropped away at his feet, falling away into a terrifying slope.

To say that the assassin was afraid of heights was perhaps a little too strong, but he strongly disliked them and the thought of going down there on a flimsy board he'd never even stood on did not appeal at all. He flopped down on the snow with a thump, and it billowed out beneath him slightly.

"Pretty awe inspiring, hm?" Came Vexen's voice from a little way off. It sounded different, like the Vexen Marluxia knew had been left alone in his lab and a whole new person was standing next to him, natural, smooth, full of life.

"Yeah," He replied. "But I think I'll leave going down it to you," He added quietly. Vexen smirked.

"Sorry, Marluxia, but you don't get that choice,"

"What?! Vexen, I've never snowboarded before! I've never even gone skiing!"

Suddenly Vexen's voice was very quiet, like he didn't want the others to hear what he was saying. Like it could be taken to have a very different meaning. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. You've got me,"

The wind blew and took the words. Xaldin caught them neatly and snickered.

"At this rate, we won't have to do anything at all,"

"I told you they were already completely smitten with each other," Xigbar grinned. "Right!" He called to the others. "Let's go!"

Vexen shook his head, walking over, leaving Marluxia sitting miserably in the snow.

"You guys go on ahead. Marluxia needs some lessons,"

Xigbar nodded, setting down his board and strapping himself on. Xaldin and Demyx did the same.

"Just don't kill him, okay?"

And they were gone.


	4. Falling

Marluxia watched them shoot down the slope, screaming and laughing. Xigbar performed some elaborate jumps, flurries snow flurrying everywhere.

"There is no way I'm going down there," Marluxia complained as they landed, screeching, at the bottom on the slope. Vexen roughly pulled his board off him anyway, and put it at his feet.

"Get on, you sissy,"

"No way," The insult stung but Marluxia tried to ignore it. Vexen glared, suddenly all ice again.

"You don't even know how do strap yourself on. I could just leave you up here, you know,"

Grudgingly, the Graceful Assassin stepped onto his death. Vexen pulled the straps tight briefly explaining what Marluxia was to do.

"Right, you're all ready," Vexen clapped his hands, straightening out. Marluxia wanted to scream that no, he wasn't ready, he had no clue what he was doing and he would much rather be anywhere than here, on top of some remote mountain, surrounded by snow and about to hurtle down at terrifying speeds on a flimsy piece of fibreglass. However he decided against it and nodded vaguely.

"Aren't you going down?" He asked.

"Of course,"

And then the snow just solidified beneath Vexen's feet into an elegantly carved snowboard made of ice, elaborate patterns and all. Obviously. What use would a ice-wielder need of a snowboard when he could just make his own that would obey his every thought?

"You look as if you've seen a ghost," Vexen laughed as the others materialised next to them for their next turn. Xigbar was boasting about his "mad snowboard skillz" whilst Xaldin, the sensible one, merely commented on how much easier it became with powers of space, although elementally, of course, he also had an advantage.

However flowers were entirely unused to such things as extreme snow sports, so Marluxia didn't even have that to comfort him. Once again the others were off, this time Demyx attempting some complicated flips.

"Well? Are you too scared to go down?" Vexen asked, a hint of mockery in his voice. Marluxia didn't reply, refusing to make eye contact. "I'm not waiting for you any longer, Marluxia. Perhaps you can summon some of your famous courage next time,"

Vexen shifted slightly and shot down the slope, so fast he was practically a blur. He easily caught up with Demyx and spiralled around him, before overtaking. Marluxia watched him shamelessly showing off, even flying through the air, creating huge bridges of ice for the others to travel across. Then the bridges disappeared as suddenly as they came, leaving steep vertical drops which Vexen navigated easily. Marluxia found himself wondering why the scientist wasn't called the Graceful Academic instead. Well. He certainly felt like the Chilly Assassin right now.

Vexen had reached the bottom, curving flawlessly around to face up the mountain. The others were cheering and clapping him on the back; Demyx was waving his arms about animatedly. They were having a great time and suddenly Marluxia felt very alone at the top of the mountain.

It wasn't that much different from surfing, really, he tried to convince himself.

He pushed himself uncertainly off, and immediately felt the wind in his hair as he attempted to stay upright, going in a large curve so the angle wasn't quite so steep. The snow was all in his face and he was sure he was about to freeze off, but he hadn't fallen. Yet. He just about curved the board around and for a few terrifying seconds he was going vertical before the angle leavened out a little. Just how fast was he going? A third curve brought him close to the bottom and he curved back again, stopping a few metres from the others. The adrenaline wore off and suddenly exhausted, he collapsed into the crisp white snow and squinted at the sun that ruled the immaculate azure sky.

Xigbar jogged over, followed by Vexen.

"Nice," He grinned from ear to ear. Even Vexen seemed pleased with Marluxia's efforts, a small smile on his face. "We all thought you were going to fall, no offence," the Freeshooter continued.

"Thanks," Marluxia managed to say, trying to get his breath back.

"You surfed before, right? It shows,"

Marluxia thankfully grabbed hold of the hand that was presented to him, even if it was Vexen's, and hoisted himself up.

"I must admit it was impressive for your first attempt," Vexen said, and Marluxia gracefully accepted the rare compliment. They all portalled back to the top, and Vexen began running through a simple jump for Marluxia to practice. A few more trips down, in which Marluxia fell countless times much to Vexen's amusement; Marluxia was sure his bad luck was something to do with the academic. Then they moved on.

The second slope Marluxia absolutely refused to go down. It was steeper than the first, and rather than a straight slope had curves, bumps and most importantly - countless rocks visible above the snow. No matter how much the other three (excluding Vexen who pretended he didn't care) pleaded, teased and complained, he stayed stubbornly at the top. Eventually they gave up and left without him.

"Vex, create an avalanche for us," Demyx begged after their third time down.

"I do want to be able to do some more boarding today," Vexen retorted, for once keeping in good humour rather than immediately snapping like usual.

"Just a tiny one, please,"

Vexen kicked some snow with his boot and it tumbled down the slope.

"A little bigger than that," Demyx grumbled, looking up at Vexen with accusing eyes.

"Fine," Vexen caved. "Everyone line up, I'm only doing this once,"

Marluxia watched from a little way off as Vexen concentrated his powers on the snow. He wondered if he should join in, but decided against it. Anyway, his snowboard was still lying a few metres behind him.

Suddenly the snow began to slip away at his feet, just a little at first but growing until he was floundering in the gigantic avalanche. The other three were off, riding the snow, but Marluxia began to panic. Then just as unexpectedly he had a board beneath him, one made of ice. Vexen was beside him, controlling a double board down the falling snow. He accelerated and they went vertical, only the back of the board touching the ground.

"Lean back!" Vexen yelled, and Marluxia complied, moving into the spray of snow behind them. Then they were away from the avalanche on another bridge of ice. There was nothing in front of them, only a beautiful, glistening arc stretching out where they'd been, growing as Vexen pulled the ice into existence.

Adrenaline set in and it was so close to emotion Marluxia couldn't care less if he was next to a man he despised. For a few seconds they were in the air, and then they landed in a curve on the avalanche and Vexen was so close, leaning into the mountainside before they curved away.

Vexen broke the board and sped off by himself, leaving Marluxia on his own. Somehow he navigated to the bottom of the hill where the snow settled. Vexen had curved several times and landed a moment after him.

"Not so bad, huh?" He grinned, actually grinned, eyes glinting with excitement. Demyx and Xigbar came round before either could say anything else, covering them both with soft, fluffy snow.

"That was so cool!!" Demyx exclaimed at Vexen's general direction as the old man picked himself out of the snow. Vexen smiled back at the young musician.

"Nice trick with Marluxia," Xigbar smirked, gesturing to him, still lying on the ground. "Anyway, we'd better stop for food. Where's Xaldin?"

"Right here," Came the Whirlwind Lancer's distinct voice.

They portalled back up to the summit of the mountain for a better view and unpacked their lunch. Everyone was hungry enough to eat all the ample food that was provided, and possibly more had it been there.

Vexen stretched out on the snow and relaxed. He felt the sun, warm on his face, reminding himself of how cold he was inside. Another person sat next to him, and he turned slightly to face them.

Marluxia was staring up at the sky, from this angle perfectly framed by the sun, turning his hair into a pink fiery blaze. His eyes looked so unusually thoughtful, so sincere. Vexen turned away.

Marluxia, he decided, should not, under any circumstances, be able to do that. Ever.


	5. Questions and Answers

At the end of the day, they returned to their hut, exhausted. At least this evening spirits were high, Xigbar mused as he prepared their dinner in the kitchen. As awesome as this world was, it had one significant drawback - no takeaways. The other nobodies were all lounging around watching TV in the next room.

When they'd reached home, everybody had quickly changed out of their cold, wet clothes into more comfortable dry garments. Xigbar heard the deep fat fryer click and he pulled the tray out, tipping a couple of pieces of chicken onto each of five plates. He carefully juggled them into the lounge and handed them out.

"Same thing tomorrow?" Demyx was giggling, still somehow full of energy.

"Aw, I dunno," Xigbar teased, settling down on the arm of the couch next to him. "Don't you want to do something else?"

"We could go to the lake," Vexen suggested, his voice betraying how tired he was. "The ice there is thick enough for us to skate there tomorrow,"

"And maybe snowboarding in the afternoon," Xigbar compromised. They all agreed, and continued to make random conversation as they ate. Once Vexen was finished, he stood.

"I'm going outside for a while," He said, pulling his coat on and drifting out.

Marluxia watched him leave, a strange expression on his face.

"So, Marluxia," Xaldin's voice broke the assassin's thoughts. "Did you enjoy today?"

"I guess, yeah. It wasn't so bad."

"Only that?" Xigbar asked. "Must have been awesome riding with Vexen like that on the avalanche,"

Marluxia didn't want to admit how exhilarating it had felt when he'd been flying through the snow.

"It was pretty cool," He said, refusing to give in to Xigbar who was obviously trying to make a point.

"You should tell Vexen that," Demyx replied. "He'll be pleased,"

The comment perplexed Marluxia. Why would the bony man even care?

"What?"

"Oh! Sorry, nothing, just mumbling, you know," Demyx tried and failed to cover up his mistake.

"You're rambling, little dude," Xigbar laughed. Demyx sensibly shut up. The conversation moved on.

Marluxia stayed quiet, mulling over Demyx's words. They had to have had some meaning, or else why would the musician try to cover up what he'd said? Then again, Vexen was distant and anti social to most people anyway, but he despised Marluxia. He often said how little he cared for the assassin.

The more Marluxia thought about Vexen, the more confused he had become. Why had the academic offered to stay at the top of the mountain in the morning with him rather than just going down without him? Surely any of the others could have taught him what to do just as easily. And why, when he was caught in the avalanche, did Vexen come to his rescue? Hadn't he leaned just a little closer into the mountain than he needed to?

Eventually he couldn't stand his enigmatic questions anymore. He excused himself, and followed Vexen outside, seeking answers.

"Great one, Demyx," Xaldin congratulated the boy as Marluxia disappeared into the snow. "Now if this works out, we just need Zexion and Lexaeus to play their part when we get back and-"

"And Bingo! We've caught them." Xigbar grinned.

Without the warmth of the sun, it was even colder outside in the night. Marluxia searched fruitlessly for some sight of Vexen in the bleak darkness. He stumbled through the snow, already feeling it melt and soak his skin. Damn the old man! Always disappearing when they really needed to talk.

Marluxia pondered as he walked down the hill, still seeking out Vexen. Perhaps it was best not to raise the issue directly with him, knowing the academic's snappy and unpredictable disposition. Just make casual conversation, that was the key. Drop a few subtle hints here and there and see if Vexen took the bait.

Finally right near the bottom of the hill, Marluxia saw Vexen. Standing in the middle of the frozen lake, staring up into the cloudless night sky. He approached, clearing his throat.

Vexen spun around at the noise, hair flying. Marluxia noticed he was wearing skating shoes. There were thin tracks all over the ice from where he'd moved.

"What do you want?"

Vexen's voice was dangerously low, as if he'd been interrupted and was already ready to snap.

"I just... well, I just came over to talk. You know. I was wondering where you were... Or something," For once, Marluxia's perfect eloquence failed him.

"Is that all?"

Marluxia nodded as honestly as he could. Vexen slid over, slicing through the ice with such elegance it shouldn't have been possible. He looked tired, the faint moonlight and glitter of millions of stars making him pale, his skin and hair as insipid as the surrounding snow. Only bright emerald eyes still gleamed with intense colour.

"I wanted to say thanks," Marluxia admitted, trying to overcome his pride. If his suspicions were correct, he'd have to play it very careful with the scientist. "For today. I had fun,"

Marluxia examined Vexen's response with interest. First there was nothing, perhaps slight surprise at the uncharacteristically humble statement. Then he turned with all the grace of a dancer, hands behind his back in thought.

"It was nothing,"

"May I join you?"

"You have no shoes,"

"I have no intention of skating,"

"... a pity. It's surprisingly relaxing,"

Marluxia sat down by the side of the lake, leaning against an old, leafless tree. "You will be joining us tomorrow, however," Vexen continued, moving backwards slightly out into the middle of the lake. It wasn't so much of a question as an order.

There was silence as Vexen left Marluxia for the peace of the lake, skating around the edge slowly, deep in thought. He came all the way around to Marluxia's tree, and stopped.

"You know, you're not so bad when you lose that pompous attitude of yours," He observed, sitting down next to the pink-haired nobody.

"I do not have a pompous attitude!"

Vexen ignored him, pulling off his boots and socks, stretching his legs out on the ice.

"No matter," He muttered, sighing slightly.

Yes, Marluxia concluded. Vexen was definitely acting very strange lately, and it wasn't just because of the vast excesses of snow and ice around.

"Do you ever get this weird feeling when you're... I don't know, in the middle of a forest? When you're surrounded by your element and it's like you can almost feel again,"

Marluxia thought about all the time he'd spent in his garden, why he kept going back there even though there were no emotions tying him to the place.

"I suppose, yeah. When I'm in my garden," He replied. Vexen seemed contented with the answer, and gazed into space once again. Eventually he stood up, picking up his socks and boots.

"We'd better be getting back," He said. "The others might begin to wonder where we are,"

They both began the long trek up the hill, Vexen, still barefoot, taking the lead, Marluxia trudging behind. Neither of them spoke; there wasn't anything to say. Marluxia kept his eyes on Vexen. The sky had become overcast and the consequent darkness had fallen like a shroud, so the assassin had no idea where he was going.

Suddenly Vexen stopped, and Marluxia walked straight into him.

"Marluxia? Were you... In your past life, I mean. Were you gay?"

Marluxia was completely thrown off by the blunt question. Why would Vexen ask about such a thing? Unless...

"Why do you want to know?"

"I was just curious. You're not exactly the most masculine member of the Organisation,"

Marluxia wasn't sure whether Vexen meant that last comment as an insult or not.

"So what if I was?" Marluxia turned on the defensive, suspicious.

"Nothing," Vexen sighed. "Why do you always have to make things so difficult for me? It was just a simple question,"

Marluxia didn't bother replying, and trudged on through the cold.

A harsh wind picked up and it began to snow, at first lightly but soon turning into a torrential downpour of snowflakes. The wind whipped the cold into Marluxia's face, making him stumble.

Occasionally, he glanced back at the faint tracks they'd made in the snow.

He wasn't sure why the memories of sadness surfaced just then, wrenching at where his heart used to be.


	6. Reflection

Demyx cradled his hot chocolate, breathing in the warm steam it gave off. He let the small cup of drink warm him through, heaving a contented sigh. Eventually he took a sip.

"Somehow this tastes even better when I'm with you," He murmured to his companion. "When it's just you and me,"

Xigbar smiled at the boy, somehow speaking as if from the bottom of his heart. Everything Demyx said always sounded so sincere, every emotion he displayed seemed so real. Perhaps that was why he was so popular, the way he almost lead you to believe that you, too, had a heart. Maybe that was why he was so alone, because the memories hurt that much more when someone else supposedly had it all sorted out.

"Yeah. Xaldin makes wicked hot chocolate," Xigbar laughed.

Demyx absent-mindedly wiped away the chocolate around his mouth with his sleeve.

"Don't do that," Xigbar scolded him. "If you need, I'll do it for you,"

The musician got the hint and took another gulp of the drink, then setting it down on the bedside table. He grinned at Xigbar as he was pulled closer, suddenly locked in an almost passionate kiss, as they tumbled down onto the bed. He tangled his hands in the older nobody's hair, pulling out the hair tie so it fell loose around his shoulders, tickling his cheeks.

"You taste even better though," Xigbar managed to murmur before he was on Demyx again, hungrily licking off any traces of the delicious hot chocolate.

Vexen awoke to the sound of silence. It was like the world had been covered by a thick blanket, muffling every noise made. There wasn't even rustling or chirping from outdoors, just the sound of his own illogical breathing. He pulled open the curtains and was met with a wall of white.

Apparently, the snow had fallen very deep last night.

Vexen sighed, hoping they wouldn't be snowed in. He was still very tired from yesterdays' snowboarding, and it would be troublesome to have to portal in and out of the house all the time. He crawled back into his bed, so warm and inviting, and was soon deeply asleep once again.

He was rudely awoken barely seconds later by a tiny thought pulling the back of his mind that something wasn't _right_. His eyes snapped open, trying to pull the thought out into consciousness, attempting to focus on it, see exactly what it was. It refused to reveal itself, and cursing it for the efforts he'd gone to already, Vexen prepared to return to sleep.

And he was caught by something in his peripheral vision, just as his eyes were closing. Something lying innocently on the desk. Something red.

A rose.

There was only one person staying with them that might have left a rose in his room in the middle of the night.

Vexen rolled out of bed, grabbing the stupid flower. He marched straight to Marluxia's room and threw open the door, slamming the rose down on the table. Marluxia, currently brushing his hair, looked up in surprise.

"Keep it!" Vexen all but yelled, and stormed out again before Marluxia could even mutter a word of thanks.

A rose? Marluxia stared, perplexed, at the large flower. Unlike his roses, it wasn't anything special; in no way was it flawless or extravagantly beautiful.

Why would Vexen give him a rose, of all things? He shrugged, setting it in the vase on the windowsill. Perhaps the old man was trying to say something. But what, exactly? For all Marluxia thought he knew, Vexen despised him with a passion.

Then again, there was a very thin love between hate and love, even for nobodies.

Breakfast was odd and stiffly polite; Marluxia didn't turn up, claiming to be tired from yesterday. Xaldin, as usual, cooked, this morning making waffles, unable to resist Demyx's imploring pout.

Vexen was detached from the rambling conversations of the others, deeply lost in his own thoughts about the morning. He'd noted Marluxia's lack of presence with some sort of internal smugness. Perhaps he was wallowing over his failure with the rose? His imagination began to run wild about the other man, before finally his curiousity took hold.

What did Marluxia want? What did he mean by giving him a rose? Should he really have acted so badly to the flowery man, just for a simple gift? What if it was just a simple peace offering? Or something more...?

Eventually, unable to stand his questions, Vexen excused himself from the table and hurried to Marluxia's room.


	7. Conversations

Marluxia was still contemplating the rose when a knock came at the door. He quickly pushed the flower off the side of the bed, out of sight, and flopped back onto the soft duvet.

Vexen entered when he was called, after a short, barely noticeable hesitation. He took a deep breath and began to explain himself.

"About the rose-"

"I wanted to talk to you about that," Marluxia replied before Vexen was even able to finish. "Thanks. It was very sweet even if a little tacky,"

"...What?" Vexen looked at Marluxia with complete and utter confusion. "I didn't want it,"

"That's not normally what you say to someone after you give them a gift," Marluxia muttered. Vexen wondered if the assassin knew something that he didn't.

"I was returning it to you. Because I didn't want it," Vexen repeated, talking slowly because Marluxia didn't seem to understand. Internally he was cursing himself because this was not turning out the way he wanted, because he actually wanted to say thank you for the flower and sorry he gave it back but somehow was sounding stupidly rude.

"But Vexen," Marluxia began, and the way he said Vexen's name was so ridiculous, like it was some kind of flower. Vexen dismissed a disturbing thought that appeared in his mind and listened to what Marluxia had to say. "I never gave you this rose,"

...

What?

"But I found it on my bedside table this morning. Who else would it be from?"

"It wasn't from me,"

"Well it wasn't from me either," Vexen said to clear up any confusions left. Oddly enough, he found himself even more perplexed than before.

There was a long pause, filled to the brim with awkward.

"Well."

"Yeah."

"I'm leaving now," Vexen said, pointing to the door and feeling like a complete idiot.

"Okay,"

"Yeah."

He backed outside and shut the door with a satisfying clunk. Then he proceeded to sink to the floor in exasperation.

So if the rose was from Marluxia, then who was it from? Suddenly a thought appeared in his mind and he burst back into Marluxia's room.

"Wait. You didn't just say you didn't give me this rose when actually you did because you either wanted to make me look like an idiot or you were too embarrassed to admit it?"

"Um. No. I never gave you the rose. It's not one of my roses. I had nothing to do with it until you burst in this morning brandishing it like a rabid squirrel,"

"I looked like a rabid squirrel?"

"You'd just got out of bed," Marluxia wisely commented.

Vexen sighed and the awkward loomed once more.

"Yeah. I was just curious."

"Okay,"

For some reason Vexen wanted Marluxia to say something else, to make some other conversation. He wanted the pink haired nobody to say his name again because even if he couldn't pronounce it properly. Screw that, he wanted Marluxia to iscream/i his name- Vexen stopped his thought trail right there and tried to forget he'd even been thinking about such things.

"Um. We're snowed in, did you get that?" Vexen lamely attempted to make conversation himself.

"Yeah. Xaldin told me,"

"Okay. Cool. Um. And we're leaving for the lake at nine?"

"No, I didn't get that yet. Thanks." Marluxia gave a minute smile of appreciation, and Vexen nodded slightly, exiting the room once more. As soon as the door was closed he ran back into his room, cursing himself for his complete incompetence in social situations.

Cool? Did he actually say that?

He put his head in his hands and wished desperately that that conversation had never taken place.

The day somehow disappeared in a flash, and Marluxia hardly got a chance to talk to Vexen after their strange conversation in the morning.

It was laughable, really. They'd both been fretting over the enigmatic rose, thinking it was from the other, and it turned out to be a complete misunderstanding in the end. Still, he couldn't help but wonder. And a part of him still hoped Vexen didn't actually despise him, although it was impossible, obviously.

He wished he'd been able to say more in the morning, but somehow he could never find his voice when he was alone with Vexen. Although perhaps if he had said anything more, he might have got carried away and let something slip.

Then Vexen would probably shout at him. Or hit him. Or annoyingly probably, both.

The others were all down at the bottom of the ski slope, and Marluxia wondered vaguely if he should join them. He decided against it; Vexen looked like he was enjoying himself and he didn't want to ruin his fun like he had countless times before. He unstrapped his skis and ploughed through the snow to the other side of the ridge. The view was spectacular. He sat down quietly, careful not to disturb the snow too much, and stared out over the beautiful scenery. After a few moments, he closed his eyes and just enjoyed the cold sunlight on his face.

Someone appeared behind him, and he turned slightly, looking up to see who it was.

Vexen. Great.

The man sat down beside him, looking anywhere but at his worst enemy.

"The others asked me to come and get you since it didn't seem like you were coming down again,"

"Hm." Marluxia agreed. "Uh... About this morning," He struggled to find the words because he hadn't got a clue what he wanted to say.

"What about it? I never did find out who the rose was from,"

"Well... It was kinda funny, I guess. I mean me thinking it was from you, and you thinking it was from me,"

Vexen chuckled slightly.

"Almost as if it was set up by someone else,"

"Yeah. Although who would do that kind of thing?"

"It could have been Xigbar playing a trick on us," Vexen mused.

"Crap! What if he put webcams in our rooms or something?" Marluxia exclaimed.

"He'd better not have," Vexen growled. "Or I will kill him,"

"Damn!" Xigbar suddenly yelled as they trudged through the snow back to the hut, all too tired to create darkness portal. "We so should have put webcams in their rooms!"

---

In the evening a miracle happened: Vexen and Marluxia found something to talk about.

Deeply engrossed in a conversation all about the durability of plants in extreme cold, they both completely failed to notice the other three making not-so-subtle eye contact and laughing at random personal jokes about them.

Even more amazingly, as they left for the sitting room, the pair had managed not to descend into an argument, being merely at the stage of a heated debate.

"Tomorrow's the last day," Xigbar observed, trying to catch their attention.

"Oh yeah," Vexen responded from the other side of the sofa. "What was that you were saying, Marluxia?"

Xigbar discreetly gave a thumbs up to Xaldin and Demyx.

The conversations progressed, until finally they decided to get some sleep. Well, three of them decided. The other two, who were now discussing the finer details of osmosis, didn't seem to be interested.

"You're actually pretty good at science," Vexen admitted, a good three quarters of an hour and several changes of conversation later.

"Of course. I was a botanist as a somebody."

"...Oh."

"Don't worry, no-one expects it,"

"Well, I always thought you just liked flowers,"

Marluxia yawned, suddenly finding himself struggling to stay awake.

"Just because I was gay doesn't mean I was incompetent,"

"I never said you were, " Vexen defended. "I just meant-" He noticed the oncoming argument and paused. "Oh, never mind."

Marluxia yawned again, leaning against Vexen ever so slightly.

"I really can't be bothered to get up to go to bed," He murmured.

"Me neither," Vexen replied. A few silent moments went by. Marluxia shifted slightly on Vexen's shoulder, eyes closed in a rare, peaceful expression. He looked so sweet, baby pink hair framing a perfect, pale face. His thick eyelashes were making little shadows on his cheeks in the gloom.

Vexen tried to keep still so as not to disturb the man, but he too was battling against sleep. He moved a little to get into a more comfortable position, and Marluxia fell into his lap, snoring softly.

"Marluxia's fallen asleep," Demyx reported in a hushed whisper to the others before returning to his post of watching through the keyhole.

"Those two are hopeless," Xigbar muttered. "They still haven't confessed their love to each other,"

"Even if they don't we've got the other plan and they'll have to fall for that," Xaldin whispered. Xigbar nodded wisely.

Vexen vaguely contemplated picking Marluxia up and carrying him back to his room, but he didn't want to wake the sleeping nobody and, although he desperately attempted not to admit it to himself, he was actually pretty comfortable with Marluxia on his lap. Eventually he decided to settle down, and hoping that Marluxia wouldn't wake up, he got himself into a comfortable position. Granted, Marluxia was now somewhat sprawled over his chest, but right now he didn't really care. Just as long as he woke up first in the morning.


	8. Leaving the Snow

Marluxia came into consciousness as the morning sun failed to shine in through window. He fidgeted a little and promptly fell off his bed onto a hard floor. He didn't remember going to sleep last night, the last thing he remembered was talking to Vexen. His jumbled mind tried to work it out. Was alcohol involved? Marluxia didn't remember anything about it but then again he didn't remember much at all.

Something moved next to him, and he looked round to see his bed sitting up, rubbing its eyes and mumbling incoherently.

"Vexen?"

Marluxia admitted to himself that he had been wrong earlier; Vexen didn't look at all like a rabid squirrel.

The old man cursed quite suddenly.

"Damn! Did I knock you off?"

"No, I fell off as I woke up,"

"So you woke up before me,"

"Yeah."

There was a long silence much like the many others that had come between them in the past few days. "Why was I sleeping on you anyway?"

"Uh... I dunno. I fell asleep on the couch yesterday a few minutes after you, I think,"

"But we were in a different position before," Marluxia was presumably oblivious to the terrible sexual innuendo he'd just made. Vexen unfortunately wasn't, and it made him wince slightly.

"Must have moved in your sleep," The scientist was quick to reply. Like hell was he going to admit anything. Marluxia coloured a little.

"We don't tell the others, okay?"

"Agreed."

And indeed, the other three never found out.

Or would never have found out, had they not already known.

Demyx giggled at the photos on his phone that he'd snapped of the couple sleeping on the sofa.

"You were right, Xig! They look so cute together," He grinned.

"Of course, I'm always right," Xigbar replied from the other side of the room where he was packing up his clothes.

"I never thought I'd see the day when someone called Vexen cute," Xaldin laughed from the doorway. He was already ready to go.

"Who's calling me cute?" Came Vexen's voice as he rounded the corner carrying his bag.

"Oh, nothing, dude," Xigbar quickly lied, hiding a devious grin. "Just something Marluxia said,"

"Marluxia? Hm."

Vexen wandered off again.

"...That was not the response I expected," Xigbar deadpanned, and Demyx doubled up laughing.

The group was just about to leave.

Vexen was once again outside, snow falling softly. It covered him in a tiny layer of snowflakes that would never melt on him.

He contemplated.

He contemplated many things, and often. Such was his nature.

Today he contemplated the events of the past few days. Most importantly, the events concerning Marluxia. He had been positive that he despised the man, but now he wasn't so sure.

And that last comment Xigbar had made...

He contemplated deeply, weighing up the evidence like it was some court case.

Someone came up behind him, and he spun around, hoping that maybe-

It was Demyx.

"We're gonna go now," The small nobody said. "Marluxia says he'll stay behind if you want a few more minutes out,"

"Thanks. I'll be ready soon,"

Demyx ran back inside, greeted by Xigbar who gave him a hug.

Such a ridiculous display of affection that couldn't even be felt. Just like the hint of jealously that Vexen didn't feel as he watched them laugh and joke.

He turned back to the endless snow. It calmed him.

"Having fun there?" Came a deep voice from a while away. Approaching footsteps crunched on the virgin snow. "The others have left already,"

Vexen imagined Marluxia behind him without turning around.

Weight on one leg, hand on hip. Blue eyes staring directly at him, a slight cocky smile. Hair playing restlessly in the wind.

"I'm coming. Just a few more minutes,"

Marluxia waited patiently.

"Marluxia?" Vexen finally asked. "Did you really call me cute?"

The flowery man laughed, coming up beside him.

"That's not what you're supposed to say, Vexen," He grinned. "You're meant to confess that you love me too and then by the time you realise it was a trick it's too late,"

"What's that supposed to mean? You didn't even answer my question!"

"As a matter of fact, I did call you cute," Marluxia murmured.

Vexen was thrown off by the answer. He'd expected a no.

"Why?"

"Why not? It's true," Marluxia replied. "Why must you always make things so difficult for me, Vexen?"

There it was again. That stupid, ridiculous way he said Vexen's name that was somehow so endearing. So cute.

"Fine. You're cute. Happy now?"

Marluxia sighed.

"You're obviously missing the point,"

"If you'd kindly alert me to it I'd be happy to help!" Vexen exclaimed, exasperated. "I have spend this whole holiday having no clue what was going on! Perhaps if someone actually told me something for once I'd be able to understand all these cryptic things everyone's been saying!!"

"I know what's going on. Would you like to know?"

"Did I not make it obvious?"

Marluxia smirked, looking out across the snow. After the recent stormy weather, everything had become calm, the sky a perfect cloudless blue.

"The rose was from Xigbar. It was a set up to make us fall in love. This entire holiday was."

Silence.

"Oh. So that's all there is to it. No secret hidden messages after all."

Vexen sighed, because he should have known. Marluxia was nothing more than a colleague, albeit one who found him cute. He turned back to collect his bag and go.

"There is one more thing you don't know," Marluxia said from behind him. "It worked on me."

Worked on... Vexen stopped in his tracks.

"You mean...?"

Marluxia sighed, and began to walk back as well, passing the blonde.

"It took a lot of courage to say that," He muttered over his shoulder. "You could at least give a proper reply,"

He walked right to the porch, and picked up his bag. Vexen stood speechless in the snow.

"...Wait!" He finally yelled after the man, all too late.

Only the fading traces of darkness remained where the nobody had stood.

It was as good as rejection, Marluxia mused as he set down his luggage, spilling its contents onto the bed. He began to sort out his things, returning to their usual homes.

Well. That was the last time he'd ever confess to somebody.

Although Vexen had admitted that Marluxia was cute... that was a start, right?

Then again you could find somebody cute and not have any feelings towards them. Or non-feelings or whatever was messing with his head right now.

He quickly got bored with unpacking and headed down to the kitchen to find food.

It wasn't common knowledge (more of a well-guarded secret), but Marluxia had a tendency to comfort-eat. In fact, of the Organisation, only Larxene knew and that was just because she'd seen him sneaking food up to his room at the dead of night after Axel burned half of his garden down a couple of years ago.

He searched the fridge for something edible and found his way to half a cheesecake.

Cheesecake is good, he mused, pulling it out and fumbling for a fork.

"What's got you this time?" Came a feminine voice from the doorway.

Marluxia spun around, caught red handed, but relaxed when he saw it was only Larxene. He made his way to the table and set himself down.

"Just... stuff. General,"

The cheesecake was very good.

"You just had four days off!" Larxene exclaimed. "Shouldn't you be happy? Anyway, how'd it go, with old Mr Smartypants with you?"

She was given a murderous glare across the table and decided to be a little more serious. "Seriously, what happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it,"

"That bad, huh," Larxene mused.

"Yes." It was a very definite and final answer.

Seeing that conventional means wasn't going to get an answer out of the assassin, Larxene pulled away the cheesecake. Marluxia pouted.

"Vexen was looking for you earlier," She informed him. Sure, it was a lie, but she needed information. The flash of hope in Marluxia's eyes wasn't quite what she expected, but it was something.

"Why didn't you say so? Did he say why?"

"I didn't think it was that important, and no," Larxene continued to spin her web of lies. She passed back the cheesecake, and Marluxia began to eat again.

"He probably just wanted to moan at me anyway,"

"You did something?"

"Yeah. I said I thought he was cute." Marluxia suddenly blurted out.

"Seriously?! _Vexen?!_" Larxene all but shrieked.

"No need to make a fuss about it," Marluxia mumbled, turning delightfully pink and looking down at the cheesecake.

It was becoming more and more appetising as the moments progressed.

"Anything else?" The savage nymph had calmed herself down now.

Marluxia explained the entire ordeal to her, starting with Vexen seeing him half naked before the trip and ending with his confession in the snow. The tale received varying reactions from the Organisation's only girl. Laughter, shock, and then an ominous maternal smile that Marluxia wasn't sure he could trust. "My little Marluxia, falling in love! That's so sweet," She grinned.

"No, it's not," Marluxia grumbled. "He doesn't even feel the same way about me,"

"How do you know? He said you were cute, right?"

"He could have just been saying that to get answers from me. Or because I am. Anyway it doesn't prove anything,"

All too quickly, the cheesecake was gone.

"Maybe you should go talk to him," Larxene advised. Marluxia shook his head, carefully putting the fork in the dishwasher. Then he left her.

Vexen paced.

For whatever reason, he could never keep still when something was playing on his mind. So he paced, up and down, in and out of the weaving corridors of the underground labs.

He'd tried to find Marluxia earlier, and failed miserably. Perhaps the assassin was avoiding him now.

Vexen cursed, angry that he hadn't been just a little quicker earlier this morning.

"What's up?" Somewhere above him was Xigbar. Eavesdropping as ever.

"I don't want to talk about it. Especially not to you,"

"That's harsh, dude. What's old Xigbar done this time?"

"I'll advise you one thing, II, and that's never try to play matchmaker ever again,"

When numbers were used instead of names, it meant somebody had crossed a line. Vexen continued to pace, leaving the Freeshooter behind him. He was quickly caught up with.

"You love Marluxia, huh?"

"As if," Vexen found himself beginning to copy Xigbar's speech patterns. He would have laughed at the irony had the circumstances been a little different.

"You should go talk to him. He's in his garden right now,"

"I don't want to go anywhere near that stupid pansy,"

Vexen wondered how blatantly obvious that lie was.

The flowers rejoiced in his return, although their cries of joy were soon replaced by their thirst.

Marluxia set about watering every one, the perfect amount, until the entire garden was content. Then he began to pull out all the weeds, careful not to break them. They weren't supposed to be there but that didn't mean they deserved death. The weeds would be planted in the next room later.

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in," He called, and someone opened the large doors a crack and slid in. Marluxia took a break from his gardening to turn around and talk to his visitor.

"Marluxia, I need to talk to you," Vexen said as he shut the door with a satisfying clunk.

"Yeah. Let's just pretend-"

Vexen cut him off.

"I'm sorry. About this morning. And don't interrupt me because if I stop now I won't finish."

Marluxia stayed silent.

"I want to apologise, because I didn't realise what you meant until you were gone."

"Is that all? Save your excuses,"

"No. There's something else. I..." Vexen paused, anxious. _Just tell him already!_ voices inside his head were screaming. _It's not like he doesn't feel the same way about you_.

He shouldn't feel at all, if the rules applied like they were supposed to, Vexen reminded them.

"Just say it, Vexen." Marluxia said quietly. _Say what I always knew. That you hate me_. How could he have been fool enough to think differently?

"I... I love you, Marluxia,"

There. It's over.

Wait.

What?

Marluxia was suddenly glad he wasn't in the possession of a heart, otherwise it might just have exploded of happiness.

"I thought you hated me," Was all he could say. Vexen laughed.

"Me too,"

Suddenly Vexen was all around him and it took a moment for Marluxia to realise he was being hugged. It was all he could do to return it, burying his head in Vexen's chest.

_And somewhere, or perhaps nowhere if you're being technical, next to a monitor, two nobodies were performing an elaborate victory dance._


	9. Epilogue

It had been an impromptu, rash, split second decision that Vexen wasn't sure if he regretted or not. He looked down at Marluxia who was curled up in the blankets beside him for a moment. When that got boring he turned back to his book.

"How much longer are you going to be?" Marluxia asked wearily. It was already nearly midnight and the neophyte probably wanted to sleep.

"That depends on how many interruptions I get," Vexen replied snidely. Marluxia looked up at him with a slightly disdainful expression.

"It's nice to know that you treat me with such respect,"

"I treat you with more respect than you deserve,"

Marluxia gave a long suffering sigh.

"And what does that have to say about your tastes?"

"This has nothing to do with my tastes," Vexen huffed. "Now if you'll let me get to the end of this chapter,"

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"No. Shut up and let me read,"

Marluxia sighed again and buried his head in the thick blankets again, curling up against Vexen's chest. For a moment, Vexen's eyes lingered on the younger man, but then the book called to him and he returned to picking words off the tattered page.

The decision had not only been rash and impromptu, but also _very_ stupid. Marluxia was in complete contrast to Vexen's idea of an ideal partner; the opposite gender, for a start. He was a neophyte, an arrogant and egotistical one at that, he was disrespectful and headstrong and far too sure of his opinions. And, Vexen had come to realise, lived in a dream world with his head in the clouds, filled with delusions of perfection and grandeur. He was all ideas and plans and detailed aesthetics and absolutely no practical application whatsoever.

But he'd been caught up in the rush of everything and not even thought for one split second before he'd said yes. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he was beginning to think clearly about all the problems that his words would pose.

The most immediate and physical of all, Marluxia was propped up against his ribcage and very heavy. Vexen glanced down at him, his pink hair brushing across his face, hand resting on Vexen's chest, fingers slightly curled. Marluxia must have noticed that Vexen was looking at him, and glanced up through his thick eyelashes.

"Done yet?"

"Just one more page,"

"You said that twenty minutes ago," Marluxia huffed. Vexen looked back at the book.

"Did I?" He asked distantly. Of course he knew that he had indeed said that, but there was no harm in irking Marluxia a little more. A small thought mentioned that perhaps he might be part of the problem, but he ignored it.

"You're intolerable sometimes," Marluxia replied, yawning. "And I'm exhausted. If you don't close that book in the next thirty seconds I'll remove it for you,"

"What makes you think you could?" Vexen snipped. Marluxia glared, making a grab for the old leather bound volume a second too late as Vexen simply held it out of the way.

"I'm fully capable of restraining you and you know it,"

"You're dirty,"

"What?! I didn't mean it like that!" Marluxia reached up, trying to grab a hold of the book, but Vexen was holding it above his head, still reading. "You're the dirty one, taking everything I say as an innuendo!"

"Then I suggest you save yourself the embarrassment and don't say anything at all,"

For once, Marluxia actually did the sensible thing and shut up. Vexen returned to his book, and admittedly it was a few pages until the end of the chapter, but it really only was a couple. Finally at a convenient stopping point, he memorised the page number and snapped the book shut.

"I'm done," He announced, fully expecting a sarcastic reply of something along the lines of "Finally...", but there was nothing. Not even an exasperated sigh or a murmur. "Marluxia?" Vexen said, quieter this time as he glanced down at the other nobody. Asleep already. "Well, if you could get to sleep with the light on then why complain?" He muttered, feeling an irrational smirk form on his face. He leaned over to the bedside table to put down the book and turn off the light, but didn't get far. With Marluxia lying on him just so, there was no way he could reach the table and the lamp without knocking him over and waking him up.

Well. Vexen wasn't tired and he still had fifteen more chapters to go. He opened the book again and resumed his reading.

---

At some point something told him it was morning and forced him to wake up. He groaned as instead of being greeted by the familiar lurking darkness, bright light hit his eyes. He quickly screwed them up to avoid temporary blindness and peered up at the man he had been sleeping on.

"You're still reading?" Marluxia asked, disbelieving.

"I couldn't reach the lamp to turn it off with you sleeping on me like that. And you were asleep, so I figured a few more hours of uninterrupted reading time wouldn't hurt,"

Marluxia glanced round at the clock on the wall.

"It's six o'clock. And you're still reading."

"Yes," That was another thing. Marluxia was one of those people constantly stating the obvious.

"Do you ever sleep?!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Marluxia. Of course I do,"

"I do wonder sometimes. Now turn that lamp off and let me sleep. Stupid light made my subconscious think it was morning,"

"It is morning," Vexen pointed out.

"I don't care. It's too _early_," Marluxia grumbled, wriggling back down into the ample bedding again, throwing one of the blankets over his head to block out the light.

Actually, Vexen mused, Marluxia was quite cute sometimes when half asleep and disagreeable. Not that he wasn't always disagreeable, but still. Eventually, Vexen leaned over to turn the light out and then set about searching for Marluxia underneath the blankets. Eventually his hands came into contact with Marluxia's waist, and he wrapped his arms around the other man, pulling him closer.

"I'm supposed to by up in half an hour," He whispered in Marluxia's ear.

"Says who?" Came the muttered reply as Marluxia pressed himself against Vexen's body, hugging him tight.

"Zexion. We have some experiments to evaluate,"

"Screw evaluation. I'm finally comfortable and you need to sleep,"

Vexen smiled in the darkness. He had to admit it to himself, after a stressful day and then pulling an all-nighter, he was rather tired. And being curled up in blankets and Marluxia was surprisingly comfortable.

"Fine," He mumbled back, letting his eyelids slide shut. It barely took a minute for him to fall fast asleep.

--

After fruitlessly knocking on Vexen's door with varying degrees of politeness and force, Zexion eventually gave up and just walked in unbidden. It was dark inside, but the cloaked schemer was sure that Vexen would be in here, if only because he'd simply looked everywhere else. Leaving the ajar to allow some of the light from the corridor to enter, he slipped in. On the bed, there was a huge pile of blankets, steadily rising and falling as the man underneath it slept. The quantity of bedding in itself was odd; Vexen's room was always cold but of course it never bothered the cryokinetic nobody. Also, the fact that it was nearing eleven o'clock and Vexen was asleep was highly unusual. Zexion reasoned that the trip he'd just returned from must have been tiring, but surely not so much so to warrant getting up three and a half hours late? He'd have thought that Vexen would have been sensible enough to go to bed early if he was that exhausted, but then again Vexen did have rather peculiar sleeping habits.

Unable to solve the dilemma without further inspection, Zexion picked his way through the cluttered room in the half light to the bed. He lightly shook what he hoped was Vexen's shoulder, hoping to wake the sleeping scientist. When he received no response, he simply threw back the covers. To his surprise, he found not one, but two sleeping nobodies, peacefully curled up in each other's arms.

That was unexpected, Zexion told himself, stepping backwards slightly. By all accounts of Xigbar, Vexen and Marluxia still classed each other as being in the utter loathing category, but here they were sleeping together as though it was what they always had done. The Freeshooter needed to know this. As quietly as he could, Zexion slipped back out of the room, closing the door behind him. Well, that would explain why Vexen was still asleep, if he'd been up all night with Marluxia.

It took a while to find Xigbar. Zexion supposed that if he tried sharing any top-secret information with one of the other members, then Xigbar would unfailingly appear on the ceiling to eavesdrop, but since the information that the illusionist held now was something that Xigbar really needed to know for once, of course he would be nowhere to be found.

In his searching, he spotted Demyx in the training arena, however. He had been part of the big plan too, so Zexion figured that he might as well know.

"Demyx," He called out to the water elemental as he entered through the spectator seats. Demyx spun around.

"Oh! Zexion! Hiya!"

"Must you punctuate everything with exclamation marks?" Zexion sighed at Demyx's never ending enthusiasm. He only succeeded in confusing the musician, however. "Anyway. Guess who I found in Vexen's bed this morning,"

"Uh... Vexen?" Demyx hazarded, evidently not to bright his morning.

"I mean in bed with Vexen,"

"Oh! Oh my God! Really?!" Demyx's confused face suddenly split into a wide grin.

"Assuming that you're thinking Marluxia, yes," Zexion muttered.

"What's all this about our resident flower boy?" Came a loud voice from high above them. Zexion sighed again. Typical.

"I thought you'd pop up out of nowhere as soon as I mentioned anything interesting, Xigbar. Now get down off the ceiling so I can talk to you properly,"

There was a whoosh as the black shape of Xigbar hurtled towards the floor at high speed, landing with a thump barely inches away from where the two already ground based nobodies were standing.

"You don't need to constantly show off, you know,"

"We're not all cloaks and daggers, little Zexion," Xigbar, not all that tall himself, laughed, patting Zexion's head.

"Do you want to know what it is about Marluxia?" Zexion snapped, waving Xigbar away, irritably.

"I'm sure Demyx will tell me, right, dude?" Xigbar laughed off the murderous glare that Zexion shot at him as Demyx just grinned like an idiot. "Ok, ok, take a chill pill," Xigbar muttered when Zexion kept glaring. "I take it back. But you're still short. Now what about Marluxia?"

Zexion sighed. Surrounded by idiots. He opened up a portal to Vexen's room.

"Look. It'll be better if I just show you,"

"_Dude._" Xigbar was staring at the sleeping couple with unsuppressed glee.

"Do you realise how annoying that word is?" Zexion hissed. "Quieten down. I don't want to wake them,"

"They're so cute! I want to take a photo!" Demyx flipped open his phone and carefully lined up a shot.

"I wonder what they were doing all night that left them so tired that they're still sleeping," Xigbar whispered. The remark sent Demyx into fits of silent giggles.

"Shut up!" Zexion said again. "If they wake up-"

He was interrupted by a ball of black leather and electrical sparks that suddenly shot out of a portal.

"Larxene?!"

The organisation's only girl studied members II, VI and IX for a moment and laughed, not even bothering to keep her voice down.

"Oh! I expected to find Marluxia here, but not you three as well. It's shameful, really, peeping on the dearest newlyweds. Whatever is the Organisation coming to?"

"Keep your voice down!" Zexion hissed again. "You'll wake them up!"

"Too late," Came Vexen's unmistakable voice, groggy from sleep, as he rolled over to face the trespassers. "What the hell are you all doing here?" He peered at Xigbar and Demyx, both wearing identical sheepish expressions, an angry looking Zexion and Larxene, detached and amused by the whole situation. When the men failed to come up with an explanation, Larxene stepped in to help with a devious smile.

"We wanted to congratulate you, of course,"

"Really? On what?"

"Oh, I don't know. Getting laid, perhaps?" Larxene's grin widened as Vexen froze, face turning as red as Axel's hair.

"What?! T-that never-" The academic just managed to splutter.

"Oh, come on!" Why else would you still be asleep at this time of day?"

"Gah! No! I was reading! iReading/i! Get whatever perverted thoughts you're having out of your head! Nothing happened!"

"Quick to defend ourselves, aren't we, Vexen? Got something to hide?" Larxene pressed, taunting Vexen further. He gave her an exasperated look.

"I hate you all," He finally conceded after a moment, rolling over onto Marluxia whom he'd forgotten was still lying there asleep.

"Ow! Vexen! That was my-"

Vexen mercifully shut him up by clamping his hands down hard on Marluxia's mouth.

"Shut up! Just shut up! Don't even think about it!" He screeched, trying to hold the struggling assassin down as Larxene howled with laugher. Eventually Vexen gave up, miserably burying his head in the pillow.

"...Elbow," Marluxia finished quietly, thoroughly confused. "Morning everyone. What's wrong with Vexen?"

---

After a few minutes and several patchy explanations, Vexen firmly ushered the gaggle of nobodies out of the door, slamming it behind them.

"Do you really think that they, you know... Did it?" Demyx asked Larxene.

"'Course not. Even Marluxia doesn't move that fast. I was just winding Vexen up,"

"Oh. Well. It's great that they're together, though, right? We didn't even need to do anything in the end,"

"So it was you guys who left the rose and all that other stuff, then. Shoulda guessed that,"

"Somebody needed to get them together. It's obvious that they're made for each other," Xigbar wisely commented.

"I admit I didn't think it was that obvious until Marluxia confessed that he'd fallen head over heels for old cranky scientist here. Whilst eating cheesecake, I might add," Larxene replied.

"So that's where it went," Zexion muttered. "There was still more than half of it left. Did he eat it all?"

"Yup," Larxene grinned. Marluxia's best friend she may have been, but that didn't mean that she wasn't going to tell on him when the owner of the cheesecake came round asking where it had gone.

"Holy cow," Demyx said with enthusiasm. (Improbable censors for expletives had become something of a trademark of Demyx's. Unfortunately it also mean the birth of a lot of terrible innuendos, courtesy of Xigbar. Carrots would never be the same again in the Organisation.) "I saw the size of that thing. No way could he have eaten it all,"

"He didn't eat all of it. Just half," Larxene said.

"Oh,"

They parted their separate ways.

---

By lunchtime, everybody knew.

Whilst it was easy enough for Marluxia, who simply seemed to soak up the questions and demands and exclamations, Vexen, always somewhat elusive, didn't know how to react to the sudden attention suddenly thrust upon him.

Axel was, by far, the worst. It was infuriating enough simply having to listen to him rant endlessly on about subjects that, frankly, nobody but he cared about, but when Vexen himself was subjected to his endless questions and grating voice, the process became something short only of torture.

Axel seemed to have forgotten the common courtesy of personal space, and had even followed Vexen down to the labs.

"But really! Never thought you'd be a fag, Vexen,"

"_Thank_ you for that subtle insult, Axel," Vexen commented dryly, attempting to scrawl a set of results on a post it note. Unfortunately it was pink.

"Marluxia get you those?" Axel pointed to the little stack. Vexen moved them out of the eclipse of his bony finger.

"No,"

"Cause, you know, he's the one who's all pink and stuff. Really. Is it true that he spouts petals when he orgasms?"

"How would I know." Why did everybody think that now Vexen and Marluxia were going out, they'd suddenly start banging like rabbits?

"You'd know better than me," Axel laughed. He stopped when he saw Vexen's icy expression. "God. Anybody'd think I was trying to insult your manhood or something,"

Vexen used the power of silence upon the pyromaniac.

"Oh! You're secretly a woman! I knew it!"

"_Axel_."

"Right, sorry, forgot, Marluxia's way to gay to be straight. Oops," Axel apologised in the most insincere and insulting and irritating manner possible.

"Will you please just go away?"

"Geezus," Axel said, leaning back on the adjacent desk and knocking over a thankfully unlit Bunsen burner. "I'm only curious,"

"And I'm trying to get some work done!" Vexen gestured wildly to the stacks of reports, results, evaluations and a good deal of pink post it notes on his desk.

"Don't let me stop you, old man," Axel used that particular insult as if it was an affectionate nickname, and Vexen had to actually grit his teeth to keep from snapping at him.

"You are," He finally ground out, lifting up a hefty book and purposefully dumping it right next to Axel. To his fleeting satisfaction, the other nobody jumped. He'd just returned to his desk to relocate the next volume when Marluxia wafted in, like the scent of dew on a morning breeze.

"Axel...? If you would?" His silky voice was, as usual, overly polite and gracious, but with detectable patronising undertones. He didn't even need to finish the sentence as he fluidly gestured towards the door.

Axel grinned sheepishly, pushing himself away from the desk he'd been leaning on. Vexen quickly sidled in and up righted the Bunsen burner.

"Leave you two alone to do your stuff, of course,"

Marluxia gave him a tiny - and ever so slightly condescending - smile.

"Thank you,"

Axel slipped out of the door and almost immediately the lofty air surrounding Marluxia disappeared.

"I would express my gratitude, but you just subtly implied that we'd be having sex," Vexen muttered, heaving the last couple of books onto the pile on the other desk.

"You say that as though it's a bad thing," Marluxia murmured back, amused. He watched Vexen struggle with his load - _damnit, couldn't the flowery man make himself useful for once?_ - from a distance, leaning against the wall near the door.

Eventually Vexen sat down with a sigh.

"Did you want something?"

"I thought you might like to have Axel off your back for a while,"

"Mm. It is certainly more peaceful without him. Have you got this problem too? I swear, nobody - no pun intended - will leave me alone now they've found out that we're going out,"

Marluxia came over to pull up a stool and sit down next to Vexen.

"Well, I don't think anybody expected it. The last they knew, we abhorred each other," Marluxia shook his head, smirking. His hair swung with the movement. "You wouldn't believe some of the rumours Xigbar overheard."

"Rumours? Already? We've been going out for _two days_,"

"Well, news spreads fast in this Organisation, I suppose,"

Vexen sighed, busying himself with his work again. He found an old report he'd forgotten he'd written, and read through it in case it had any significance.

"I'm sure they'll get bored after a while," Marluxia commented. Vexen glanced up, shrugged, and read the same sentence twice.

"Eventually they're going to run out of questions," He intoned sarcastically, noticing movement in his peripheral vision as Marluxia sidled closer.

"I fear that's probably wishful thinking," Marluxia said, chuckling. He leaned over Vexen's shoulder, so close as to brush soft pink hair against his cheek.

Vexen knew that Marluxia didn't hold the slightest interest in the report. He let out a little sigh and set it down, leaning back to rest against Marluxia's chest. The assassin reached up and gently began to massage Vexen's shoulders.

"You're tense," He stated conversationally.

"I always am," Vexen replied curtly. "If it's not one thing, it's another. There's never a moment to spare,"

Marluxia shook his head.

"Your problem is that you always get so involved. Let some of the others do some of the work. You have Lexaeus and Zexion to help you; how come I never see them around the labs?"

"They do have field work to contend with as well, you know," Vexen huffed, somewhat insulted for his co-workers. "And anyway, I don't want to seem to be shirking my duties. The others hold low enough views of me as it is,"

"I can assure you that nobody except you cares how much work you're doing huddling down here with your science experiments," Marluxia said, running his fingers down Vexen's back to loosen up his muscles. The scientist couldn't help but shiver at the firm touches.

"I'm sure the Superior does,"

"Xemnas cannot expect you to spend your entire waking life working,"

"He expects me to complete the work set, no matter how long that takes,"

"Just tell him it's too much. You deserve some time to relax, just like the rest of us, whether you do field work or not,"

Vexen grimaced.

"I'm not having him accuse me of incompetence,"

"You complain about everything else without too much trouble," Marluxia pointed out gently.

"_Thank_ you,"

Marluxia simply smiled an unreadable smile and continued to massage Vexen's back, rubbing and probing, firm but gentle and it wasn't all that bad, really.

"So what else do you have to do today?"

Vexen glanced around the lab.

"I need to clear this mess up, for a start,"

"It's fine,"

"It's not," Vexen argued. "Everything's where it oughtn't to be, the sink is overflowing with equipment in need of sterilising, and there's dust everywhere,"

"There are three books off the shelf and a Bunsen burner left out. There's enough dust to fill perhaps a thimble, and whatever's causing the sink to overflow must be invisible because it looks empty to me. You are far too perfectionist," Marluxia corrected.

"And you have no sense of organisation,"

"Just let Zexion clear this up when he gets back. The lab isn't entirely your responsibility. I want you to take the afternoon off,"

"You can't just order me around. I also have-"

"Consider it a suggestion, then. Come on. This can wait,"

"Did I ever mention how impatient you are?" Vexen grumbled as Marluxia dragged him off his stool towards the door.

"Probably," Marluxia replied vaguely with a wave of his hand.

----

Of course, Vexen resisted and argued the entire way to wherever Marluxia was taking him.

Okay. Admittedly he'd much rather spend the afternoon with the assassin than down in his labs doing perifferals and checking experiments. But he still argued, if only on principal.

Eventually they reached a pair of towering doors at the end of a corridor. Marluxia fished out a key, clicked open the lock, and pulled.

Out opened a cascading garden, light so convincingly natural spilling out into the dark corridor. The blue sky was crystal clear; the brilliant green of the plants were speckled and splashed with every colour imaginable in the form of beautiful, intricate flowers.

Marluxia showed Vexen in and closed the door behind him.

"Welcome to my sanctuary," He whispered into Vexen's ear as the scientist simply gaped.

"This place is amazing," He finally said. "Just how many species of plants do you have here, anyway?"

Marluxia smiled, pleased.

"Oh, a fair few. Come on, I'll show you around,"

---

It was easy to lose time in the maze of towering trees, shrubbery and flowers in Marluxia's gardens. Vexen had never realised just how extensive they were - but there was a whole labyrinth of rooms filled with plants behind the doors, each one with the same clear skies so uncharacteristic of the gloomy World that Never Was. Vexen was amazed by it; he'd always known that Marluxia had bribed Zexion fairly comprehensively before the illusionist would create the mirage of an entire sun to light up the gardens, but he hadn't realised just how brilliant the effect was.

One of the rooms boasted an entire orchard of fruit trees, from apples and pears to the oddest shaped fruit Vexen had ever seen, let alone named.

"I've always wanted to get a paopu tree but the conditions in which it will grow are extremely difficult to replicate here," Marluxia explained as one particular tree leaned down for him to pick two fruits from its bows. He handed one to Vexen. When the scientist took a bite, juice trickled down his arm.

"How do you manage to keep all of this? I mean, doesn't it take hours gardening every day just to maintain it?" He asked as they wandered through the orchard.

"Oh, it's pretty easy. All I really need to do is just water them occasionally, check that they're all doing okay, and move the weeds,"

"You mean remove," Vexen corrected. Marluxia laughed, ducking underneath a low hanging branch which revealed a door right behind him.

"Oh, no. I don't kill them. Here,"

He pushed the door open into a wilderness. Even here, the sun was just as bright, but there was no path, no neat rows of flowers. The entire place was a mess of nettles, brambles, dandelions, forget-me-nots - every weed that Vexen had ever pulled out of a flowerbed and hundreds he didn't recognise.

"In some ways," Marluxia said, moving aside some prickly branches with a gesture of his hand, "This is my favourite room. I don't suppose you can feel it, but there's an aura about plants like this. They know they're not wanted."

He paused to tenderly cup a struggling cowslip in his palm.

"But they also know that they could be so useful, so worthy, if only somebody would give them a chance,"

He let the tiny yellow flowers in his hand hang down again as his arm dropped back to his side.

"I suppose I sympathise with them all,"

Vexen was about to retort back - how could Marluxia, one of the most popular and most favoured nobodies in this entire Organisation, claim to be unwanted in the same way that these plants were? But something stopped him.

"I think, on some level, we all do," He finally agreed, quietly.

Marluxia smiled. There was that sincerity, that thoughtfulness in his features again. It was something that Vexen had never noticed before - he'd always thought Marluxia to be a brash, cocky, disrespectful upstart like all the other neophytes. But now he was really looking, Marluxia couldn't have been like that. He was reserved, intelligent and... Sort of noble. In his own special flowery way.

At some point they both realised that they'd been staring at each other and looked away, blushing.

"Come on," Marluxia finally said, standing up with a flourish. He led Vexen out of the door again, back into the orchard. "I think that's all of the rooms, now,"

Vexen tried to count just how many rooms he'd passed through, each one filled with different, fantastical specimens. He couldn't remember.

"Who else has seen all of this?" He finally asked. There were rumours that Marluxia never let anybody into his gardens, but then again there were also rumours Xaldin's sideburns were sentient and Zexion was transgendered.

"Larxene, of course," Marluxia replied. "And Zexion saw some of it when it was still in progress, when he came to put in the sun. And if you'd believe, Demyx visits the meadow sometimes to play. I caught him sneaking in one day a while ago, but he's so pathetic that I don't have the heart to force him out. So he can come in when he wants, as long as he doesn't bring anybody else or touch any of the plants,"

Vexen nodded. They wandered through a little thicket into a grassy clearing banked by tall, purple flowering plants. Marluxia sat down, gesturing for Vexen to do the same.

"You know, you look so much better when you let a little light onto your face," He commented as Vexen stiffly folded his legs underneath him.

"What are you talking about?" Vexen retorted. "You say that like I'm always sheathed in darkness,"

"I mean real light, not the fluorescent strips in the labs,"

"I doubt Zexion would agree to installing a fake sun in the laboratory, as well," Vexen replied. Marluxia shook his head.

"I don't mean that. I was just pointing out that sunlight makes you look so much more natural," Marluxia said, reaching out to brush his fingers through Vexen's long hair.

"I'm not sure whether to take that as an insult or not,"

"You may as well. After all, you take everything else I say about you as one," Marluxia said, shrugging. Vexen glared at him.

"I do not!"

"Name an example," Marluxia challenged him smugly. Vexen frowned. As if the flowery man could expect him to remember every single conversation they'd had where they hadn't been trying to insult each other.

Admittedly, there weren't that many.

---

It wasn't until much later that Vexen left Marluxia's whimsical sanctuary to return to the cold, clinical labs, and later still that he went to bed.

It felt strangely empty without Marluxia's sleeping body crushing his ribcage, and sleep refused to come easily. It barely seemed like a few minutes had passed before his alarm was beeping shrilly in the darkness at 6:30am.

Vexen froze it and turned over in his bed. It still smelt slightly of roses.

Eventually, a full ten minutes late, he stumbled half asleep over his chest of drawers to pull out a clean change of clothes, then to the bathroom to wash, and finally down to the labs as soon as he was dressed.

There was a note on one of the tables next to a single black rose, which would have been tacky were it not so perfectly formed.

Vexen picked up the slightly pink tinted paper. It was an apology from Marluxia; he'd suddenly been sent away by the Superior on a mission in some backwater world somewhere, and wouldn't be back until well into next week.

Unsure whether to be annoyed, disappointed or pleased, Vexen instead simply set the note back down onto the table, forgotten, and continued with his work.

Entirely unusually he became restless and bored after a few hours, wanting to get out and do something else. He glanced back at the note on the adjacent desk. Trust Marluxia to not even say which backwater world he'd been called away to.

He made a few more half-hearted attempts to concentrate the active ingredients of ethers, but he couldn't concentrate, for whatever reason.

Setting the test tube down in a spare rack to cool, Vexen pulled his gloves off to lean against the desk, agitated. He supposed that he ought to at least label the tube before he left and did something else - where did he put his sticky labels?

His mind turned up only blanks and he was reduced to methodically shifting through the drawers underneath his desk until he found the little roll of labels he needed. Biro. Chemical formula. Test tube. Date.

He stirred it a little with a spare spatula just so it wouldn't feel unwanted, and then shoved it in the fridge and left to stalk the corridors for a while.

The twisting passageways were as blank and empty as always, of course, Vexen's footsteps as mindless and autonomous as ever as he was compelled to simply pace until an idea or solution or the necessary concentration, in this case, came to him. He paid little attention to where he was going. If, under unlikely circumstances, he should have got lost, he could simply portal back to the labs or continue to wander until he found a more familiar corridor or room.

Today his footsteps led him to the huge double doors at the end of one hallway. For a moment he wondered if he should enter, but then he remembered the huge, ominous Venus fly traps that Marluxia had cheerfully introduced to him yesterday.

He shrank away from the doors, shuddering. Perhaps that wasn't such a good idea.

"Vexen!"

Vexen spun around to see Luxord standing idly a little way down the corridor.

"What is it, Number Ten?" He asked, careful to recompose himself as though it were entirely coincidental that he'd been standing just outside the entrance to Marluxia's garden.

"I noticed you here, so I thought I'd take a moment to congratulate you,"

"On what?"

"Well, Marluxia,"

Vexen's first automatic reaction was to deny all connections to the Graceful Assassin, but he stopped himself just in time with the realisation that actually, they were pretty connected now.

"I'm still wondering why I agreed to go out with him," Vexen muttered sarcastically as a way of thanking Luxord for his congratulations.

"There must be some reason," The gambler assured Vexen gently.

"Adrenaline, perhaps,"

Luxord shook his head with a smile.

"Well, best of luck to you both,"

"Thanks,"

Luxord was gone in a whisper of a portal, leaving Vexen standing wretchedly alone in the stark corridor.

Why was he with Marluxia, anyway? Why did he always forget all logical reasoning whenever he was with the flowery man? Why the hell, Vexen wondered, was he attracted to a pompous, arrogant, narcissistic, over confident _man_ whom he'd always managed to loathe without any second doubts?

At that point, a thought even less answerable suddenly struck him. As inexplicable as his feelings for Marluxia were, it was nothing compared to the other way around. At least, Vexen mused thoughtfully as he began to pace again, Marluxia possessed at least a few redeeming qualities one might want in a lover. Good looks, for example. And experience.

He, on the other hand, was ageing, bony, narrow minded, anti social, eccentric and stubborn. What was it that Marluxia ever saw in _him_?

Vexen made a sure mental note to ask the assassin when he returned, as he stepped back into his cool labs. Suddenly a week seemed like a very long time.

----

Thursday arrived eventually, and much to Vexen's well hidden disappointment, Marluxia didn't return. The scientist kept on procrastinating going to bed in the hopes that Marluxia might suddenly drift in with a shower of cherry blossoms, but the lab remained as clinically scentless as always.

Finally Vexen was forced to retire to bed; it already nearing two o'clock in the morning and he'd have an early start tomorrow as well.

He sighed as he settled down into the cold, empty mattress. It was curious, he pondered as he lay still, how accustomed he had grown to Marluxia simply being there, even after just a few short nights together. Intimacy was something you quickly got used to, a habit hard to break.

He shifted a little and hit something hard with his elbow. Something warm.

Once he'd recovered from jumping nearly a foot in the air from surprise, Vexen turned to face Marluxia with a frown.

"You scared me," He stated, as though it weren't obvious. Marluxia simply smirked.

"I missed you too,"

"Yeah, and all that stuff," Vexen added. After a moment, he discreetly latched himself onto Marluxia and pulled himself close.

He was late up in the morning, anyway, but somehow that didn't matter so much any more.


End file.
